Pepsico Branding Case

Branding is not an expense but an investment

The brand is the image of the company, and if consistent, it can present a clear and homogeneous sense of what the brand is all about. As companies grow, there are more executives making decisions, and in the case of PepsiCo where part of its international growth was within independent bottlers across various countries, brand consistency was tougher to maintain.

At the time of the case study, PepsiCo had been able to close the market share gap they had with Coke, and their attention moved to strengthening the brand. Project Blue was then an investment in their future, and something they needed to do to refresh and fortify their image.

internationally and as segmented as PepsiCo grew,

Your company's brand is what people think of you, and that's shaped by every interaction you have with your market. It's therefore crucial to ensure that every touchpoint with your company is consistent, that you present a clear and homogeneous sense of what you're all about.

That's not easy, especially as your firm grows. As more and more people make decisions that affect your company, and by extension your brand, it becomes tougher to maintain consistency. Both your "old friends" (i.e., long-time staff) and "new friends" (new staff and outside creative suppliers) are likely to want to put their personal stamp on everything. It's natural for them to want to show their creativity -- whether on your products, business cards, flyer, radio commercial, recruiting materials, training videos, reception area, e-mail formats, websites -- everything!

Why? Because your old friends, who've seen the same message seemingly forever, are sure that, like them, customers have become tired and are ready for a new message. And your new friends who've just joined your firm are trying to do everything to impress, including leaving their fresh mark on projects or initiatives that come their way. New friends can also include the many outsourced creative suppliers who believe it just isn't creative unless it's all new and has never been seen before. And no group is more receptive to new ideas than old friends, who have long since become bored. Both groups have little respect for the No. 1 brand-building tool: consistency.

What happens when people get bored and consistency of brand message is ignored? Companies engage in off-brand behaviour and risk their hard-earned brand equity. Consider this real-life example: Volvo differentiates itself from the hundreds of car choices in the market by "owning" the safety position. The company has earned it through relentless focus on the subject: they've been at the forefront of most safety-feature innovations in the automotive industry for the past 40 years. Yet recently, to try to make up for a series of service appointments and recalls, a well-intentioned Toronto dealer opted not to give a customer another travel first-aid kit but instead an expensive corkscrew set embossed with the Volvo name on the lid. The unquestioned leader in automotive safety associating with rinking? This decision was definitely not consistent